Monday, December 26, 2016

Hey everyone. I'm emailing this week from soaking wet
Bristol, VA. It has been raining so much
here that there have been flood warnings across our whole mission. It's been crazy! We finally got the rain we have been missing all
Summer and Fall. Also, next Monday, our
P-day will be moved to Wednesday due to a Half-Mission Conference with Elder
Neilson, President of the Missionary Department and in the presidency of the
70. We are going to be meeting with him
for most of the day so that is what is happening next week. Well you probably want to know about our week
which was decent and the reasoning behind my subject title so let’s get into
it.

Monday we sat outside and froze with the
sisters as we played a bunch of board games. I also got a haircut which was probably the
best one I have ever gotten from a Great Clips. Not much else happened that day.

Tuesday we do service at a member’s farm each
week. We picked strawberries and then started
pulling up the stakes that hold up the tomato plants. They have a huge field of them. We work there with the Sister Missionaries
too. Towards the end, we took some of
the rotten tomatoes that are everywhere and started throwing them. Elder Anderson and I had the stakes and so we
played Babe Ruth for a bit. Yes, we did
get sprayed with tomato juice in the face when the stake and tomato made
contact. After lunch there, we went back
and showered of course. We later tried
to see some potentials we found last week, but no luck with that. That evening we went out with our Ward Mission
Leader and saw a couple less-actives.

Wednesday we went and saw a lady named Miss
Rush. She has been meeting with
missionaries for almost 4 years now. She
feeds us and takes good care of us and in return we teach her our beliefs to
help her understand more. After that
visit we met with some investigators named Dakota and Chris. We mainly just
fellowshipped and got to know them a little better. Chris can make huge rings with his vaping. It’s pretty cool actually. Too bad he will have to give that up if he
joins the church -haha. That evening we
had a Book of Mormon class at the church. I would really like to get some non-members to
it to help them learn more about it.

Thursday we had District Meeting which was
pretty good. That afternoon we tracted
for almost 4 hours. For the first 2 1/2
hours no one was home, wanted to listen, and some wouldn’t even take a Light
the World card. It was starting to get
dark and when it is dark, people are winding down. That’s usually not the best
time to knock doors, but we had such a pitiful first part that we were
determined to make the end of it count. Still,
no one was interested, but we handed out triple or more of the cards than
before. So that ended our work on a much
better note and I count it as a success for the day.

Friday we weekly planned. Later we had to refill the car with fuel and
get some air in the tires. After about 4
different gas stations that either were out of service or didn't have the type
of gas we needed, we finally found one. This
is where my title will somewhat make sense. At one of the gas stations we stopped at, an
older gentleman came over and started talking to us for a few minutes. We gave him a card and he thanked us, like
most people do out here, for what we are doing. He told us that we should be grateful and
happy if we are able to help one soul that day and sometimes we may not even
know it. He said to just think; if we
helped 1 person a day for a year, that is 365 people we have helped. Wow! What great insight on that! There really is a success every day with at
least one person. It also goes along
with the Light the World initiative of helping just one person each day and to
continue doing it even after Christmas. You
too can help at least 365 people in a year. Later we met with a man named Don. He is an older gentleman - like in his 80’s
old. I will just say that cleaning is
ESSENTIAL! His house was not the worst
one I have been in, but to describe it, the moment you open the door a wave of
rotten mold mixed with urine smell rushes over you and you don't get used to it
- even after an hour. Boxes and clutter are
everywhere with mice climbing all around. Yes, I really did see and hear the mice. My appreciation for clean living continues to
grow over my mission. And just remember,
that is not the worst I have been in. We
saw a couple more people that day, but not much else happened.

Saturday we went out with some of the Priesthood
of the ward and tried to visit a few less-active men. We then saw Miss Rush again. We had a good gospel discussion with her. After her we met with Josh and Kara. We originally were going to meet Josh, but
Kara just came and joined in. She is actually
way more interested than he is. He was a
little too focused on the football game. I will just stop and say that my self-control
to not watch sports has grown, but it takes just about all of my strength to
not look - haha. Anyways, we taught
the Restoration and invited them to our Ward Christmas Party on Saturday.

Sunday we had a great Testimony Meeting at
church. Later we had a lesson with David
and then got to watch him and Sister Young get married. We later visited with the Fonsecas and then played
a couple games with them.

This week I just want to take a moment to
express my love for this work in which I am involved. It kind of occurred to me that I love being a
missionary. I love serving the Lord and
being able to share my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ with people every
day. Even the bad moments or weeks, I
love it. Back when I was still somewhat
new to mission life, I easily could have gone home after my time was up and
been fine. As I think now, it is a
little bit of a scary thought that one day down the road, I won't get to be
doing the things I am doing now. I know
that I can still be a missionary even when I am home, but it will not be the
same. The joy I get to feel each day as
my companion and I get to help people and see their lives change is
indescribable. I love being a missionary
and having this chance to devote all of my time and efforts to serving the Lord
and fulfilling His work and the plan He has for me each day. There is nothing I have done in my life up to
this point that is greater than this. I
have come to learn and know what it means to love the work and people. I know that this is the true and full gospel
again on the earth and that we can gain eternal salvation with our loved ones
and Father in Heaven again through the sacred ordinances performed by God's
proper authority. These are my thoughts
and feelings that I wanted to share this week with you all and I close in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Tour Of His Bristol Missionary Apartment

I Ask Him To Video All His Apartments Just So We Can See Where He Lives

Friday, December 23, 2016

Well quick little note - I did not go to
Bristol, TN, but just across the border to Bristol, VA. We cover both, but we live on the Virginia
side. So my new companion is Elder
Anderson. He is from Denver Colorado. I'm finishing his training and he is a pretty
fun guy. So this week has been pretty
good.

Monday we got the transfer calls. Then we went to the Chattanooga Zoo with a few
other missionaries. It was pretty fun. Later that night we had a lesson with Zack. We talked about the Priesthood and the
different Priesthood auxiliaries in the church. It was a pretty good lesson.

Tuesday we met with Olivia and Rebecca. We talked about how we don't have to know
everything to show our faith and act upon it. We are hoping Olivia was able to talk with her
parents when she was home so she can reach the date she set for baptism. Later we went and did some more tracting. We also stopped by to see how Jarvis was doing
and so I could say goodbye. He gave us
some sweet potato pie that was really good. Funny experience we had as we biked over: We are working on talking with everyone we see
and as we were riding our bikes, we saw a guy in his driveway that was wearing
a black shirt, some camo pants, and boots. So Elder Thomas, being a hunter, stopped and
asked how he was doing and if he was getting ready to go hunting. He responds with, "What the *!?%$* does
that mean?" E. Thomas said that he
asked because he looked like he was getting ready to go hunting and said that
he was a hunter himself. The man
responds with, "I *!?%&* hate hunters! I'm a *!?%&*
vegetarian!" We then said "Oh, OK. Well, have a good day" and
left. I'm pretty sure that guy just
woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day. We just laughed it off – that just did not go
as planned. Later that night we went out
with Bro Smith. We went and had a lesson
with a referral and it went pretty well. Hopefully he will follow through and progress
in the gospel.

Wednesday we set off for transfers. We had to be there earlier than most of the
missionaries because Elder Thomas needed to go to Trainer training. So I got to chill with some of the other early
missionaries. Elder Mcleod was there,
mainly because he is now AP, but I got to talk with him a little bit. There were a couple other missionaries I knew
and so it was good to see them again. Once transfers came in, I saw a few others I
knew as well. I also saw Elder
Christensen again. I then got to meet Elder Anderson. I also met Elder Thomas's greenie, or my “grandson,”
Elder Myers who is also from Boise. We
then headed off back to our new areas. We
stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch before we left Knoxville. Then we set out for another 2 hour drive back
to Bristol. Later that day, we went to
the hospital to give a blessing to an investigator's dad. We gave him a blessing and he was crying afterwards
and was so thankful. We offered to give
the husband and wife blessings of comfort as well. After those three blessings, the Spirit was
just so strong in there. We had a great
time with them. We are hoping that we
can start working with them a little more.

Thursday for Thanksgiving we got to go to a Turkey
Bowl that morning. I was so pumped. It was only us and two other families so we
played 4v4. Even though it was small, it
was really fun. We then went home and
changed and headed off to a part-member home. We ate and then played some games with them.
We had to leave and go to our next appointment, which was at another member’s
home and we ate there too. Then after that
we went to our last appointment with two recently returned missionaries who are
married and their families and friends. We
ate there too and that one was a little more difficult to finish the plate. So that was my Thanksgiving this year. Luckily I was feeling better this year than
last year when I got sick.

Friday we had District meeting. It is much different than my last District
because my last one had 5 companionships and this one just has 3. Later we did some tracting and found a few
people to go see again. After our
finding, we had a lesson with a less-active member and his non-member wife. It was a frustrating lesson for me. It was a great lesson, but just frustrating
because they were pretty stubborn and didn't want to really go to any effort to
get answers to their prayers. She said
that she is waiting to be guided by God on which church to go to. She doesn't want to leap ahead and make a
mistake which is understandable, but you can still go to different churches
without joining them. So I asked her,
"How do you know which church God wants you to go to if you don't go to
any? Won't you get an answer if you are
there or after you went you prayed about it?" It’s hard for God to guide us when we refuse
to act and just sit back and wait for something to happen. I looked at her husband as she responded and
he was just smiling and nodding because he agreed with me. I thought that was pretty funny. There were a lot of other things that I wanted
to say, but didn't because I didn't get the chance. We are going to continue to help them and
work with them.

Saturday we went and did service in some really
cold weather as we helped a member with her "farm." She has a few chickens and ducks and then we
just do other miscellaneous chores around the yard. Then we helped a less-active move a couch into
his apartment. That was an interesting
adventure. Then we went out and did a
lot of less-active hunting. We found a
few new investigators as we went because I'm working on talking to everyone. Some of these people were outside and I went
up and just started talking to them. So
I'm glad that was improvement from even just a week ago. We were able to share the “Light the World”
initiative with some of the less-actives as well. We even shared it with the Bishop here. He loved it and we told him about how they can
possibly get a temple built here in the near future if temple attendance starts
picking up. He got super excited at the possibility.

Sunday I got to meet the ward and it’s about
the same size as the White House Ward. There are a lot of really nice, cool
people here. Later we had a sweet lesson
with one of our investigators that afternoon. He is currently working towards being
baptized. There isn't a date set yet,
but we are working on that.

So if you haven't heard, the new Christmas
season initiative is entitled “Light the World.” On mormon.org there
is a sweet 2 minute video about our Savior. The whole point of this event is to get
everyone involved with serving others and brightening up someone's day. There is an advent calendar that goes with
this for every day of December. It gives
ideas each day of how we can simply serve someone else. There are videos to go
with each day as well for 25 days with over 25 ways. This is just the start. The point is to get everyone in the habit of
always helping others. If we lose ourselves, serve others, and not focus on
ourselves as much, we will have more happiness. There is no greater light than the Light of
Christ that is within each and every one of us. "Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father which art in Heaven."
As the world gets darker and darker, we
need to be the ones that turn the lights on in other people's lives. As we turn them on in other people's lives,
we turn them on in our own lives during the process. I encourage all of you to go check this out
and to get involved with this great, simple event. If you do, the Spirit of God will be in your
life more and the people you serve will be so happy and because they are happy,
you will be happy as well. I leave this
with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

So this was the last week of the transfer. My
time here in Chattanooga has come to an end. Elder Thomas is going to be
staying to take over the area and he is TRAINING! In other words, I am getting a “GRANDSON!” I am so proud. I am also going to “follow up” or continue to
train another missionary in Bristol, TN and VA. I have been told that a Geico commercial was
shot there. If you see the one where the
gecko is walking down the middle of the street and says, "on this side is
Tennessee and this side is Virginia," then that's where I'm headed. I will be serving with Elder Anderson. He has only been out for one transfer (6
weeks). So this week it was warm for
most the week and almost got to 80 one day and the very next day, it was windy
and about 55. I almost cried. I'm glad I don't have to ride a bike during
the winter though. We did get a lot of rain
one night so all the smoke from the fires has gone down.

Monday was super fun. Some of the missionaries from the District
came with us to an indoor jump park. It's
a big trampoline place and the best part - it had some Ninja Warrior type stuff.
It felt so good to do flips and climb on
stuff again. After that we met up with
the rest of the District and had a breakfast dinner. Our mission president, President Griffin, came
and we had interviews afterwards. We talked about different things. Turns out, I have the same personality type as
him. He told me some stuff about that
and things we tend to do and ever since then, I have looked back and noticed how
I do some of those things -haha. We also
talked about goals and he told me a little bit of what will be happening with
me at transfers. He played a song at our
last Zone Meeting that was really good so I asked what it was. He said it was called “Roads” by Chris Mann. He said that Chris has some other good songs
as well. I would suggest checking him
out. So that was an awesome time. We had a lesson with Zack while we waited for
our turn for interviews. We had to postpone
his baptismal date because he wants to make sure his family will support him in
his decision and also give them time for it to sink in. So we are still working with him on that.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference and we had some
really good trainings. We got trained on
how to use the new Christmas initiative the church is putting out on Friday
called Light The World. One of the Assistants
did that one and during it, they had us prepare to role play if we were to
contact a referral off of it. President
Griffin gave us a character and situation to prepare for and then after we
prepared, he called Elder Thomas and I up to do it in front of the whole Zone with
him as the “referral.” So that was
really nerve racking. We didn't do
horrible, but we definitely weren't ourselves. We then reversed and he did it to us. Man, do I have some work to do! We later had a training by President Griffin. His training was on repentance and sacrifice. He talked about how repentance needs to be a
true change of heart. And for us as
missionaries to have the Spirit with us more powerfully, he listed 6 things that
hinder us which were: Disobedience, Fear, Passion, Pride, Sarcasm/Negative Attitude,
and Laziness. He then asked us to go
home that night and write down 1 or 2 things in each category that we would be
willing to sacrifice and give up. He
wanted us to fast about it the next day and then for the next 40 days, we are
to work on letting go of those things we wrote down or improving upon them. It was a really good training. Afterwards, we did exchanges with the Signal
Mountain Elders and I stayed in the area and received Elder Hoch for the day. He is a Spanish missionary so we went and did
finding in part of our area that has a lot of Latinos. Both of us got 2 possible investigators that
day for our areas.

Wednesday we exchanged back and then we went
finding that day. We contacted a lot of
people in our Area Book and some referrals. We also went by Jaqueline and Letia’s house
since we haven't seen them in a while. We
only saw the kids and got to play some kickball with them for a few minutes.
Man, I miss those kids! We saw Hayden
that night also and we taught her about the Restoration of the Priesthood. It was a bit of a struggle teaching her, but
we eventually got through it.

Thursday was our weekly planning day. We went and tracted for 3 hours afterwards
with no luck. We found one potential on
the bus though. We did run into a Jehovah
Witness that thinks our church is racist and tried to prove us wrong. His “doctrine” didn't even make sense. Then, two doors later this guy from a
Presbyterian church first words to us were, "You guys don't believe in
Jesus Christ, the Son of God." We
both looked at him with a confused look and said, “Yes we do.” He wasn't interested, but he did say,
"I'm glad I spoke with you guys." So that was good - some people have the
strangest ideas about Mormons. We
laughed about it a bit because our church literally has Christ's name in it, it
was on our name tags, and the pamphlet we showed had a picture of Jesus Christ.
Later that day we had dinner with our Branch
Mission Leader and then tried to see one of our investigators. He was sleeping when we arrived so we talked
with his sister who is a returning less-active member.

Friday we met with Olivia and Rebecca. We read some scriptures with them and also
talked to Olivia about telling her parents about her baptism over the break. We then went and contacted some referrals. We met with Dean for a little bit and told him
he needs to start coming to church again. Afterwards, we rode by a man’s house as he was
taking leaves. We stopped to give him a Pass
Along card and he started to bash with us a little bit. Most of the things he was saying we agreed
with, but he had this deceptive idea that we thought Joseph Smith was God. He tried to quote some scripture to prove it,
but didn't know where it was. He even
tried to tell us at one point that there were 6 chapters in the Book of
Malachi. It was really interesting
because I have never had people in this area bash with me except for these past
two days.

Saturday we did some tracting in the morning
and found a new investigator. We then
helped the Relief Society with their project and made a couple ornaments. Afterwards, we went and did a bunch of
finding. We found a couple less-actives
home. One said she wanted a ride for
next Sunday and one said he would come this Sunday if we called to get him up. Later we saw Jacqueline and the kids again. They have just been going through a busy time,
but we played with the kids for a couple minutes. We are just trying to show that we care and are
still thinking about them. We later met
with a guy we tracted into last week. We
talked about a bunch of stuff and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said he would read it. He also said that if he ever feels like he
needs to do something or that something is true, then he will go forward with
it. Oh boy, is he in for a surprise when
he starts reading! He is currently
searching for a testimony of Christ, so hopefully we can help him out.

Sunday we just had a lot of church. I gave a talk in the YSA on repentance and
forgiveness. President Griffin pretty
much helped me write my talk from his training session and he didn't even know it
-haha. After church we met a less-active
and talked with him for half an hour. He
was just sitting outside trying to find it in himself to walk into the church
building. He said he is just lost right
now and so we tried to help him. We are
going to watch the Restoration video with him Tuesday. Later we went and visited Central Church of
Christ that is just down the road from us. It was a shorter service than normal because
they were having a dinner fellowship thing after it.

Today, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I just
want to say what I am thankful for: loving family and friends, the restoration of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the opportunity to dedicate 2 years to serve God
fully everyday, sports, a mission president that helps me grow and become a
better missionary, the blessing to live in the free country of the United
States of America, missionary companions who teach me things that they may
never know they taught, the strangers I get to talk to every day and come to
love, a living prophet and twelve apostles to lead us in today's crazy world, a
Savior who went through everything for me personally and for everyone else, and
a loving Father in Heaven who watches out for me each day and has provided me
with all of these things I mentioned and more. I leave these things with y'all in the name of
Him who made it possible, Jesus Christ, amen.

Monday, December 12, 2016

So this week was a pretty good week. I had to wear my sweatshirt like everyday though,
which is no fun because we all know what is coming. It also has been really smokey down here
because there are 4 fires that are surrounding us somewhat. Now when I say fires, it is not like the west.
These are just like overly big bonfires,
not ones that are burning hundreds of thousands of acres – at least not yet
anyways. So a lot of people have told us
we should go in soon because of the smoke and we are just like, this is like we
are camping back home. It's a little
funny how much they freak out about these little ones. The reason they are having them at all is
because of the drought. Chattanooga is
20 inches less than normal and so when people throw their cigarette butts while
hiking, it starts a fire because it is dry. They also caught an arson that caused one of
them. Also Transfers are next week. I know, right before Thanksgiving. We find out Monday what the verdict is and I
am guessing I will leave because I have been here for 3 transfers and I am
finishing training E. Thomas, but we shall see. So that's about it here, time for the week.

Monday we just chilled with the other missionaries
and also watched an Elder burn some pants for his 18 month mark.

Tuesday we started out and had a lesson with Olivia
and Rebecca. We reset Olivia’s baptism date
for Dec. 10. So that is going to be
awesome. We then went on exchanges with
the Zone Leaders and I went to the Harrison Bay Area with Elder Jepperson. He is an awesome guy and super fun. We had a great time. We did “finding” for the whole afternoon. We talked with this old guy at the end for
about 30 minutes. He is from the Seventh
Day Adventist church and who was really friendly and nice. We were joking around with him and then just started
asking about things like what he believed in and then he started to ask us. As we got further into our conversation, he
got more argumentative and was trying to prove his side right. He wouldn't let us answer his questions
completely before he would interrupt and try and prove our unfinished answer
wrong. He needs to “see” things have
happened, like a prophecy being fulfilled that came from a prophet, in order to
know they are a prophet. We started to get a little irritated and finally
just stopped answering him and said we were leaving. He was trying to prove our beliefs wrong, while
all we were doing was trying to talk to people amicably about Christ. So that was a fun time. Other than that experience, it was a pretty
good day and we had a lot of fun. I
learned a lot from E. Jepperson - he is going home next week.

Wednesday we had District Meeting and then we
just went and tried to do some finding. We knocked on a couple sorority and a fraternity
houses. Those are always exciting
because you never know what you are going to get. At the fraternity, as we were walking up to
talk to one of the guys, he puts a big thing of chew in his mouth. Afterwards we were both like, “Well, there
goes your teeth.” We found a couple
people from our tracting that are possibilities, but nothing too amazing so
far. We had one guy tell us it was good
we were doing it today because the world is going to need it now after the
election. The person he wanted didn't
win apparently- haha. We just laughed
afterwards. Lots of people have asked
what our thoughts are on the election results or have said something like, “You
must be happy with who won.” We have
always said, we don't know too much about either side since we don't watch or
listen to the news. All I can say is that
the people have voted and now all I can do is just pray for him and hope he
does a good job.

Thursday was a fairly good day. We got a potential investigator through a Bible
referral. She said we were an answer to
her prayers for God to send someone with the gospel to her. She also was very unbalanced from being drunk,
so we shall see how we can help her. We
taught a potential investigator the Restoration. She seemed to agree with a lot of the things
we shared. We later met with Zack and
taught him about Tithing and Fast Offerings. It worked out perfectly because that's what
one of our lessons was on in church the previous Sunday so that helped out.

Friday we weekly planned. Then later we contacted some referrals and
potentials and had some pretty good lessons from it. One of them was a lady named Deanne who wants
to search for religion because she grew up in a town that was so small that
everyone went to the same church –the only one there. We had an awesome lesson with her. We later had a quick little lesson with Hayden
where we went over the First Vision again, but with a video this time. She got distracted a lot which was a little
difficult, but she seemed to have grasped it a little better with a video this
time.

Saturday we did some finding and we found a guy
named Robert who had learned a little bit about our church 15 years ago. We are going to start meeting him. We also knocked on the door of a girl who had
just moved from Tullahoma. She was a
member and didn't know where the church was. To figure out which branch she should go to
(the family branch or the singles), I asked her (because I couldn’t think of
any other way) in the most awkward way, "So, are you...uh... single?"
We had a good laugh afterwards because
that is something you don’t usually hear missionaries say. It was a little weird, I’m not gonna lie. Come to find out, she was single so we
directed her to the YSA branch haha. We then tried a lot of people, but no luck
and we also found a couple potentials later through tracting. Later that night, we had YSA Missionary Correlation
meeting. Before the Sister Missionaries
got there, luckily, I bent down to grab something and... I will just stop and
say that when you are biking for a while, your muscles in your thighs and behind
grow and sometimes you don't even realize it until later when you have
something happen like... totally rip my pants - right down the seam in the
behind area. It was about a good 18 inch
rip. I made sure it was hidden during the
whole meeting - so that was a nice experience. It's a good thing there is a member that has
offered to sew anything if we need it because I NEEDED IT – BAD!

Sunday we had Stake Conference. Our Mission President spoke and during his
talk, he called all of the missionaries to come and stand in the front in a big
row. As we stood there and he spoke, the
Spirit was just so strong. As we looked
out across the sea of faithful saints, we could see a couple of them crying. It was a really cool experience. We talked with him afterwards and he said that
his plan was to get them to feel the Spirit and to shed a few tears. It was awesome because he told these members
that they were looking at today's modern-day Army of Helaman. There were many other great talks as well
during the conference -one of the best I have been to. We then went with our YSA mission leader,
Tyler, to his home for lunch. His mom
had cooked a real authentic Southern meal. It was her famous homemade fried chicken (which
was really good), baked beans, potato salad, pickled beets, and rolls. It was pretty good and I was so full I almost
puked it up. They are a really awesome
family. We then later had a dinner with
some other members. They had invited a
few other people over and so luckily we didn't have to eat too much because we
were still full and this was only a couple hours later. Boy was this day filling!

So my thoughts today are a little bit directed
towards judging others and comparing ourselves to others in regards to the
gospel. We should not compare ourselves
to others on the way they are living the gospel. We shouldn’t judge others because they don't
live the gospel the way we think it should be lived. The gospel is unique, just like everyone else.
The way the gospel works for you, is the
way it works for you, but it will not look the same on any other person besides
yourself. Our Heavenly Father wants us
to do the best we can to live the gospel and to do it the way it works for us. Now, that doesn't mean that we can say, "Oh
it works for me to go boating on Sunday." We need to be doing our best every day to
improve how we live. If we don't pray as
much as someone else or we don't read as many chapters in the scriptures as
someone else, then that is still OK. The
fact of the matter is, is that you are doing what works for you and it is still
good enough. It is all good enough as we
put forth our effort to do our best. As
we focus on Christ and do our best for Him, He will bring us together as
brothers and sisters in the gospel without judgments or comparisons. I leave this with y'all in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Oooops - I ripped my pants.

Another Whoops - Panorama Error - Either That Or I Have A Big Freak Head!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

I was super happy this week because we were
back in the 80s. It felt so nice. I wish all of you guys in the colder areas
could feel this because it is fantastic. We also had a great week of missionary work
and teaching people.

Monday we went and played disc golf. That was pretty fun.

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting. It was really good. We got to learn how to work with the members
better and how to set and reach our goals or vision. President Griffin also taught us why we have
rules and what they can do for us. He
played a song for us that I am going to ask the name of so I can get it back
home. After that we headed back to our
areas and got to work. We did some
finding that was close to campus, so we talked with a few college students. We also knocked on a Fraternity and a Sorority
house. Only the Frat house answered. We also accidentally tracted into a religion
called the Twelve Tribes of Israel. They
were just starting their service and they invited us in and we got to watch and
listen for a few minutes. They invited
us to come for a dinner and gave us "coupons" for a free meal at
their restaurant. They were super nice. We talked to one of the guys a couple days
later and he said that him and some of the other members used to be Mormon. So that is pretty cool.

Wednesday we did a lot of tracting across the
river and we found a couple potentials and new investigators. We then had a dinner and lesson with the 9
year-old. It was an all right lesson. After that I took Elder Thomas to his first
non-Mormon church. We went to the Church
of Christ, Scientist. There was hardly
anyone in there. The reason for “scientist”
is because they say it is the study of Christianity and Christ. The lady that started their church also wrote
a book about the parallels to science and the scriptures. Out of this book, there was a statement this
lady wrote that said, "There is no error in science." Elder Thomas and I looked at each other with a
confused look on our faces because the answers to science now are different than
they were a year ago and will change again in another year. I'm pretty sure science does have error
because it isn't a set truth. Anyway,
they also had testimony meeting and we sat there for 30 min. while 3 of the 6
people that were there gave a quick testimony. That was some serious silence and quiet.

Thursday we met with a couple investigators and
also contacted some referrals. We also
decided, since we were in the area, to go stop by Jarvis's house since we
hadn't seen him in a while. He was HOME! However, he had gotten some bad news on
Tuesday after two weeks of tests and lab reports. He has some serious health issues that I won't
go into, but he needs prayers. He told
us that he does want to be baptized and he needs to be, but he just doesn't
know when he will be able to because of this news. So we are going to work with him on that.

Friday we met with Olivia and Rebecca. We went over the importance of scripture
study. We then did some more tracting
across the river. After that we had
dinner with a member and we had vegan spaghetti. It was pretty good. We then went to a lesson at a less-actives
home and talked about tithing.

Saturday we did some weekly planning. After that we went to a 20 minute wedding of
two of the members in our branch. Both
are fairly new members too so it was cool. I wish I got the picture we were in, but maybe
I will get it at some point. We then saw
Yetta and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She really likes the things we teach her and
how we teach it so she can understand it. We invited her to a soft baptism commitment
and she agreed. She is going to be doing
some surgery soon and after that is when she will be able to start coming to
church and then eventually get baptized. She has so much faith that she will be healed.
Afterwards, we did a bunch more tracting
around campus and knocked on another Fraternity and they took a pamphlet. Hopefully that will go somewhere. We found a lady named Gracie and we are going
back next week. Towards the end we found
a college girl that said her two roommates would be here Sunday and they all
could use a message about Jesus. They
unfortunately weren't home when we went by Sunday, so we will have to try again
another time.

Sunday not too much really happened. Nothing too exciting other than church.

So I will share with you one of the things that
I learned this week. This thing I
learned deals with trust and love. We
can all love someone whether it be romantically or just as a loved one. These loved ones can include family, friends,
leaders, etc. We all have at least one
person in our lives that we love this way. Love brings a bond between people. We can also develop Christ-like love for
people. Even people we don't even know. As I go out and meet people every day, I continually
think to myself, "Wow! I love this person." And all of that is coming just from talking
with them and I don't even know them. As
this love grows stronger and into a bond, we start to grow trust. Trust is much more than love. As we love someone and get to know them, our
trust in them grows. There are many
people in my life who I have this trust in and it all started as I grew to have
love for them. This trust builds an even
sturdier bridge. To know that you can
trust in someone to do something or say something or confide in is amazing. As family we should be able to trust each
other. A self-dependent family is one
that doesn't have that trust in each other. Friends can trust in each other for shoulders
to cry on or to know that they will always have that friend to back them up no
matter what. Leaders can have trust in
us to do the right thing and to do the things they would want us to and we can
trust in them to not lead us astray. Trust
is something that is earned over time and starts as we love one another. We can still love someone, but may not trust
them. This can be a struggle in some
situations. That is why trust is super
important in any relationship, especially in one where there is love for one
another. As we trust others, we don't
have to worry about whether they will turn on us behind our backs or not follow
through because love will be there. They
will not have those desires, but will only want to help you. These are just some of my thoughts as I learn
about trust being an important part of a loving relationship. I leave these things with y'all in the name of
the one who loved all of us first and enough to be our Savior, Jesus Christ,
amen.

So one of the highlights this week was going to
this restaurant called the Yellow Deli. I will explain about it later. We also
had some exchanges and tune ups this week. Not much else to say here so let's
get on into it.

Monday was Halloween and because we couldn't go
out and proselyte, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings or B-dubs. Not much else happened.

Tuesday we met with Rebecca and Olivia. We are trying to help Olivia with her
questions and concerns right now. We
then went and just tracted a bunch. Not
much came from it, but in all reality, maybe a lot did. We helped people remember our Savior Jesus
Christ for just a little bit of their crazy day. So for dinner we had been given coupons to
have a free meal at the Yellow Deli. It
is run by a religious group called the Twelve Tribes. They are super nice and also have some really
good Root Beer. If anyone has seen Atlas
Shrugged, they kind of live similar to that -all living together in a community
and each person contributing. However,
there are some differences too. It is
more like a way of communism and all share 3 different homes and all are
required to work at the Deli. But they
are some of the nicest people ever. Some
of them even used to be Mormon.

Wednesday we went on exchanges and I went to
Dayton with Elder Thwaits. We first
helped a less-active lady by reading the scriptures and helping her understand the
principles it was teaching as we go. We
then tried a few people, but nothing came of it so we went tracting for a
little bit. We then went to the Seminary
class and helped out with the lesson this week. That night we had dinner and I cooked up some
chicken on the stove. It tasted great,
but not until after we fanned out the smoke from the detectors. When I say I smoked out that apartment, I
smoked it out! I walked out the front
door and when I was outside I looked back in and you could see this haze of
smoke throughout the whole house. It
took a lot longer than normal to clear out because their home has really high
ceilings and so all the smoke was getting trapped up there. It was pretty funny. I didn't even burn the chicken either so I
don't know what happened.

Thursday we switched back and then we went to
go get Elder Thomas his Patriarchal Blessing. Somehow he managed to come out here without
one so we went and got that done. We
later met with Jarvis and we talked about temples and family history with him. It went well and we had a great lesson. He also got some good news that his health
issues are curable since they caught it early.

Friday we had a nice little adventure. While on exchanges, my gear shifter broke off
while the other Elder was riding it so we had to go fix it. A member knew a good place to go and took us. I thought I was going in for a new gear
shifter, but it soon turned into a new gear shifter, new brakes (because my brake
pads were completely gone and it was now medal on medal), a new pedal because
one was broken, my spokes readjusted, an odometer added, and a well-lubed chain
(because it had no lube on it whatsoever). This just goes to show how much I know about
keeping up my bike and how much I rode on the mission haha. The nicest part was that all of this was given
to me at a discounted rate, like WAY cheaper than normal, and then member paid
for the whole thing. I was so grateful
for such nice people. I know God will
bless them for it. I will just say, my
bike now rides smoother than ever haha. I
guess that's what a bike is supposed to feel like when I ride it. After we got back, we spent most of our day
down in some ghetto part and tracted. We
found a couple potentials to go back and see. A member came tracting with us, which is
always super cool.

Saturday the Branch Missionaries were in charge
of cleaning the building so we did that in the morning. We then went to go see a potential and taught
her a little bit of the Restoration. There were a lot of distractions during our
lesson so it was a little rough. We went
tracting the rest of the time, but didn't have much luck.

Sunday we had church and then a Break The Fast
dinner with the YSA.

So this last Saturday, when we were tracting, a
very nice lady came out and wasn't interested, but as we gave her a pass along
card, she told us to stay handsome and beautiful and that she could see Christ
through us. That was a boost to me and
made tracting a little bit better. It
made me think, if we are living our lives in harmony with the gospel and the
commandments, then the light of Christ will shine brighter through us. Never in my entire life have I ever been told,
"I can see Christ through you, or you just have this spirit that radiates
off of you," than on my mission. Even
though it was never mentioned to me before, I hope that it was still there back
then and I hope and plan on it being there in the future. No matter if anyone says something to us or
not, we should always be living the gospel so that Christ can shine through us
and others will see that. When they do,
it might spark questions like, "how are you always so happy or how do you
just radiate light?" Then that is
when we can have missionary opportunities to share what we know and how they
can have that same feeling. So we all
need to make the changes necessary so that others can see the light of Christ through
us in this dark and evil world. This I
leave with y'all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Ellison

Tyler - Crazy YSA Mission Leader

Engels Stadium - Where Babe Ruth played and they filmed the movie "42"